TEMECULA: LOOKING OVER THEIR SHOULDER

San Diego County Raids Rattle Local Smoke Shop Owners

TEMECULA ---- The owners of the area's smoke shops are a little
paranoid. And it has nothing to do with marijuana.

In January, the El Cajon Police Department raided seven smoke shops
that were selling small hand-held pipes and large water pipes, the
smoking accessories that got both Tommy Chong and Michael Phelps in
trouble. Late last year, shops in San Diego County's Imperial Beach,
Vista, San Marcos, Imperial Beach and Escondido were hit.

According to the state's Health and Safety Code, normally innocuous
items such as envelopes, balloons, blenders, bowls, containers and
spoons can all be considered drug paraphernalia if they are intended
for use with drugs.

The code also lists some of the more common items associated with
drug use: pipes such as chillums, bongs, roach clips, syringes,
cocaine spoons and cocaine vials.

In Temecula, two stores on Jefferson Avenue sell handhelds and water
pipes, and plenty of other stores and shops in Southwest County offer
similar products. Some of the local stores also have locations in San
Diego County. The owners and managers of the stores with San Diego
County locations turned down requests for comment. Other store owners
didn't want to comment, in part to avoid stirring up any local public
protest.

A Murrieta shop owner, who spoke on the condition that her name would
not be used, said she has been following the legal action in San
Diego County and, like many of her colleagues, she would like to know
whether local law enforcement agencies are considering a similar type
of campaign.

"It could be easily done here as well," she said.

If a similar raid were staged here, the owner said, most, if not all,
of the area's smoke shop businesses would go under because of loss of
revenue from the sale of glass water pipes, which can cost hundreds
of dollars.

Losing her inventory, which includes dozens of colorful handheld
pipes, hookahs and tall water pipes encased in glass cabinets, would
"absolutely kill us," she said.

In the El Cajon raids, officers seized more than 15,000 items they
say are evidence, a staggering amount of merchandise worth hundreds
of thousands of dollars.

El Cajon police Lt. Steve Shakowski said in a recent phone interview
that the department's officers, assisted by a coalition of law
enforcement agencies, removed everything except for hookahs, the
communal smoking devices that allow a party of smokers to enjoy
flavored tobacco.

"We took pretty much everything that would be typically considered
for illegal purposes," he said.

The list of contraband, which authorities put in storage until the
smoke shop owners have their day in court, included numerous items
that could be used for smoking tobacco.

"I've been in law enforcement for 25 years ---- 11 in narcotics ----
and I've never seen anything other than marijuana or hash being
smoked in those pipes," Shakowski said.

Before giving the go-ahead for the raid, the Police Department and
the San Diego County district attorney's office gave the shops fair
warning, he said. Each shop was sent a letter detailing the legal
risks associated with selling specific products that could be
considered paraphernalia.

Of the six smoke shops in El Cajon contacted, five continued to sell
the products, Shakowski said.

Paul Levikow, a spokesman for the San Diego County district
attorney's office, pointed to the state's Health and Safety Code as
the legal undergirding for the office's case.

According to the code, anything "designed for use or intended for
use" can be defined as paraphernalia.

As for the long-standing claim that the pipes and water pipessold in
smoke shops are supposed to be used for tobacco, Levikow said the
design of some of the smoking devices scuttles the argument.

"You aren't going to put tobacco in a single-hitter," he said,
referring to the small pipes that are often used to smoke a small bud
of marijuana.

Allen St. Pierre, executive director of a national organization that
lobbies for the reform of marijuana laws, said there is nothing
intrinsically illegal about a pipe.

Contacted at his Washington, D.C., office, St. Pierre said an object
can't be paraphernalia until is used, making the recent raids in San
Diego the equivalent of "thought crimes."

"I cannot believe that when this gets to the courts, it will stand,"
he said.

St. Pierre said California state law allows for the use of medical
marijuana, making anything that's used to smoke that marijuana a
"medical delivery device."

While local smoke shop owners might be nervous in advance of the
upcoming court dates, St. Pierre said they won't be abandoned if they
encounter legal troubles.

There are attorneys throughout California who are members of the
marijuana reform movement, and he said they will mount a vigorous
defense on behalf of the San Diego County smoke shop owners.

As for the local shops, Temecula Police Chief Jerry Williams said his
officers routinely visit the city's smoke shops to look at the items
for sale, and he said the visits have not raised questions about the
stores' practices.

"There is no history of problems here," he said.